
Here's a list of some of my favorites....Plenty of other good ones, but these have been most useful to me.
As mentioned, Power by Doc is excellent.
Modern Trends in Strength Training and The Poliquin Principles by Charles Poliquin. Probably the two most practical book ever written on training. You can immediately apply information in both to your next workout. Read anything by him though. Always worth listening too.
Designing Resistance Training Programs and Periodization Breakthrough by Kramer and Fleck. Steven Fleck and William Kramer are the two reigning kings of American strength research. They have quite a few books, papers, and articles to their credit, but these are two of the better ones. But, again, anything they have written or will write is worth a look.
Fitness and Strength Training for All Sports by Hartmann and Tunnemann. This maybe be my favorite. It's somewhat crudely translated, but has great info in it. If you want to get a newbie a book to get them going down the right path, this is probably your best bet.
Optimal Muscle Training by Ken Kinakin.... Frankly, there are too many "certified" trainers out there who have not read this book! The information in it will give you a lot more mileage out of your training.
Periodization, Theory and Methodology of Training, by Tudor Bompa. Supertraining gets too much praise when there are books like this one around!
Science and and Practice of Strength Training by Vladimir Zatisiosky. It's small, but you really need to read it about 50 times to absorb everything in it.
Strength and Power by Komi.
The Development of Muscular Bulk & Power and The Development of Physical Strength by Anthony Ditillo. Hard to beat Ditillo's sensibleness.
Jim Schmitz's book and video on weightlifting...the best weightlifting resource available to my knowledge.
Paul Chek's manual and video of his Program Design seminar.
Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance by McGill....the best text available about the back.
As far as strength training goes, those are about as good as it gets, and most gave me a large chunk of whatever I know about the subject.
As for nutrition and supplementation..........Honestly, your better off reading articles and research as information is constantly changing. However, below are some good ones to give you a base of knowledge and a reference source:
Living the Low Carb Life by Johnny Bowden. Absolutely excellent book!
Muscle Building Nutrition by Will Brink......great supplement and diet info. Debunks lot's of myths.
Schwarzbein Principle by Diana Schwarzbein......you learn all kinds of stuff from this book. Need to have had a biology an chemistry class in high school at least however.
Another book that has had a huge influence on my life, not just lifting is Think Like a Champion, by Dick DeVenzio. Dick played basketball at Duke in the 70's, and was a good friend until his tragice death a few years ago of cancer. If this were a perfecct world, every high school and college athlete would be forced to read this book and write a 20 page report on what they learned from it, or not be allowed to participate. If you've read Seven Habits of Highly effective people and other such books, this one is better! It teaches you to do just what the title says.
There are of course other excellent texts that you can learn a wealth of info from, plenty websites, articles, periodicals, etc. but as far as books go, the ones listed above will put you far ahead of the game when it comes to achieving athletic goals.
Love to see other peoples lists as well, might have something I have not seen and need to.
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Think like a Champion! my high jump coach had us all read this. Awesome book! take todd's advice and find it and read it!
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Graham, if you still have a copy, in the back where there are quptes about Dick's other books, and most notably his Point Guard College, you'll find a quote about the college by yours truly.....I met Dick at the college (which is a camp, but so much more), and he graciously sent me a copy of the book a year or two later when it came out and I was surprised to see the quote in it. But as you know, the book is great, reading it is literally like having a conversation with Dick, he was an incredible person.
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I don't still have it but you reminded me to order a copy. Very cool that you are in the book... Didn't he also give many seminar's / speeches on the importance of having the right mental approach to everything you do? I'm almost certain I've heard a seminar by him on sports performance
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Yeah......he ran his Point Guard College all summer and during the winter he wrote and spoke at functions ranging from a junior high athletic booster club meeting or athletics banquet, to a meeting of fortune 500 execs.
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Then it was him we listened to a couple times during practices. My coach had a cassette of him talking about what it meant to be a champion and how to approach training, etc. It was the best advice I'd ever heard and always inspired me to work harder and harder, but for some reason I was always the only one enjoying listeneing to these tapes out of all my team mates. That coach also happened to be the best and most influential coach on my training that I've ever had, as well as life in general.
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Good start for a list.
I'd add:
The Weigtlifting Encyclopedia by Artie Dreschler. Simply put, the best technical breakdown of the Olympic lifts in print, plus a lot of other good stuff.
Quick Headache Relief Without Drugs. Kind of an obscure book, but it describes a number of manual manipulation techniques to get rid of the occasional tension headache most lifters (and everyone I suppose) get. Incredible tool for impressing the ladies, too.
Murph and Bob. Pick their brains about anything lifting and you'll come away smarter.
Neanderthal No More series on T-Nation. There are a lot of textbooks that cover the same things, but the series put together by Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson over there is a fantastic practical compendium.
-Dan
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Moderators, make this an archive!
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nice list of books! I'll make a note.
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Definitely an archive!
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Frederic Delavier - Strength Training Anatomy